The building that gave the bay its name still stands, and the nearest hospital is now forty-six kilometres away in Sechelt.
Where Hospital Bay sits, and the other places we attend
around Pender Harbour. Every name on the map is a link.
The name became official a year before the hospital closed
Hospital Bay is the inlet immediately west of Garden Bay village, on the north side of Pender Harbour. BC Geographical Names adopted it as a bay on 7 March 1963, on map sheet 92F/9, at 49 degrees 37 minutes 57 seconds north and 124 degrees 02 minutes 06 seconds west. The hospital it is named for closed the following year.
It is not a separate neighbourhood under Bylaw 708. It sits inside the Garden Bay area, and shares that area's road, water system and fire hall. Routing on 12 September 2026 gave 14.11 kilometres and 20 minutes to the Madeira Park centre, and about 46 kilometres and 53 minutes to Sechelt Hospital. The place called Hospital Bay is the better part of an hour from the nearest one.
Twelve beds served the Coast from Gibsons to Egmont
St Mary's Hospital stood here from 1930 until 1964 and was the only hospital serving the Sunshine Coast over that whole stretch. The Columbia Coast Mission had been sending ships for medical and spiritual care since 1904. An earlier attempt at a hospital failed when the buildings being towed to the harbour sank during a storm in Johnstone Strait.
The twelve-bed hospital opened on 16 August 1930, with the Lieutenant-Governor officiating. A chapel was built on the end of the building and consecrated in 1940, and was used for weddings and christenings. In 1964 a new hospital was built in Sechelt and the original St Mary's closed.
The building did not come down. It became the Sundowner Inn and the setting for local festivals and events, deteriorated, and closed. In 2006 Kusum Irene Jain and Tom Cunningham bought the inn and began a restoration, reopening it in 2013. The former restaurant became an art gallery, with plans that included restoring the chapel.
The dock beside John Henry's takes transient boats all year
The Harbour Authority of Pender Harbour operates the Hospital Bay dock, describing it as located in Hospital Bay adjacent to John Henry's General Store and Fuel Sales, and providing year-round transient moorage to boaters. The same authority runs the wharves at Madeira Park, Whiskey Slough and Secret Cove, and answers on 604-883-2234 and marine radio channel 66A. Bylaw 708 names Hospital Bay and Gerrans Bay as the locations of government wharves managed by the authority.
John Henry's is the general store and fuel dock, and it is also named as the store serving Irvines Landing, out at the harbour mouth.
Two derelict vessels sat here more than four years
By 2019 the Chuckanut Belle and the Camelot had been in Hospital Bay for over four years. Local observation at the time recorded that abandoned boats in the bay occasionally end up being used as summer residences.
That matters to an owner who keeps a boat or a float here. A vessel that stops being maintained does not leave on its own, and a boat tied near one that has been drifting toward that state can suffer from it. Any hull left over the winter needs its lines, fenders, cover, batteries and bilge pump looked at on the same cycle as the house.
A watermain replacement on Panorama Drive
Panorama Drive carries part of the North Pender Harbour main. A $1.73 million watermain replacement on that road was under way from January 2026 under a Vancouver Coastal Health construction permit, CP-25-649, issued 14 July 2025 and expiring 14 July 2026.
The water in the pipe is drawn from Garden Bay Lake and treated at a plant upslope, on the lake's southeast side. On 12 November 2025 a pickup went into Garden Bay Lake and a containment boom was deployed. Both Pender Harbour water systems were found to have severe deficiencies in the regional district's June 2026 fire flow study, with the Dogwood Reservoir off-line. Fire cover here is Hall 2 at 13303 Deller Road, with two engines carrying 1,600 US gallons and no tender at either hall in the district.
What a check at Hospital Bay covers
The driveway and the road frontage, including any active watermain work on Panorama Drive
Doors, windows, sheds and the boathouse, with locks tried rather than looked at
Heat running at temperature, or the lines emptied and the shut-off left closed
The water service connection and meter, with North Pender water billed by volume from 2026
Dock lines, fenders, cover, shore power and bilge pump on any boat left in the bay
Ramp, float and gangway hardware, including corroded fasteners and worn hinges
Salt exposure on windows, rails, flashing and siding on the water side
Roof and gutters from the ground, with any tree leaning toward the house or the service drop
A dated photographic record of every item, sent on the day of the visit
Insurance contracts on an unoccupied dwelling normally specify how many days may pass between inspections in the heating season, frequently four in a row at most, and require a competent person to carry them out, unless the water is off and the pipes drained. That condition is written in different terms by different insurers, so read your own policy and set the interval from it.
What it costs
A scheduled check at Hospital Bay is
$55 a visit, plus
$10 travel. The travel charge is the same
everywhere between Gibsons and Egmont. There is no minimum term and no joining fee.
See the full price list.
Where these facts come from
Every figure, date and quotation on this page was taken from one of these. They are
listed so you can read them yourself.
